Self Meets the Press

Eric Bossi

02/07/2005

Fresh off of Saturday's win at Nebraska, Kansas coach Bill Self had his weekly meeting with the press corps on Monday afternoon. Among the topics of discussion were the health of C.J. Giles and Alex Galindo, Wednesday's game at Kansas State and the possibility that Kansas could continue to use some zone from time to time.<br>

“Alex and C.J. both yesterday said that they felt better but neither one had done much so hopefully they can both practice at least sometime this week, but I don’t know when. I haven’t talked to the trainer yet today but I think we’ll get Alex back sometime this week for sure and then C.J. soon.”

Self on respecting the 21 game win streak in Manhattan:

“I respect it immensely, it’s a remarkable streak. It’s something that isn’t going to take place very often away from home at any level. Kansas has had some great teams and been the recipient of some good breaks and good luck and things like that, but the streak is something more so for you guys to talk about. I certainly understand why you do, but I haven’t been a part of anything except for one win and our present players haven’t been a part of that many and a lot of them haven’t been a part of any of them. I think it’s blown really out of proportion from my perspective.”

Self on discussing the streak with his team:

“We’ll talk today and I’ll be sure to let them know, although a majority of them do, exactly what has transpired but let them know how that will be motivation for them (K-State) and let them know how that doesn’t mean anything to us. Winning in Manhattan in 1989 isn’t going to help us win one bit in 2005, that doesn’t mean anything. So, we’ll talk in that regard but I think as a coach you spin it in whatever way gives you the best chance but we won’t really spin this one. We’ll just say hey this is what’s happened and this is the facts and the bottom line is our goal is to win the league and to win the league we need to play well on Wednesday.”

“I think he is one of the most underrated and he’s without question one of the most productive. He’s shooting 50% for the year I believe, or right at it, and he gets fouled a ton. I think he’s really a nice player. He’s hard to guard and the way they run their offense, they do a lot of different things and they run the triangle still some and they post him in an area that’s a hard area because he can face it and drive it so well. He’s a tough matchup, I think he’s really a good player.”

Self on K-State’s youthful backcourt:

“Clent Stewart really isn’t much of a surprise to me, I thought he would be a really good player when he was in high school. We certainly watched him a lot here at Kansas and I watched him when I was at Illinois. I think that he’s really sound and solid and a very good guard. (Fred) Peete just has a knack for getting the ball in the basket and he’s a natural scorer. They really compliment each other very well.”

Self on his shortened rotation:

“I think the positive is that we’re playing better, the negative is that guys can get frustrated that they aren’t playing. I haven’t sensed the frustration yet, I really haven’t yet.”

“I think it will help us, I think guys play better when they know who they are playing with and they are used to playing with certain guys. We thought we’d do this all along and we tested the waters a lot and this is where we’ve ended up. This is not permanent; the nine could be a different nine. It could be C.J. one particular game, it could be Alex, or certainly it could be Russell, whatever the case would be. Just don’t look for us playing a lot more than nine guys, I just feel like we’d play better if we play nine guys or ten at the most.”

Self on how he feels about Kansas two game lead in the Big 12:

“It’s a small lead at halftime. We’re happy that we’re on top and all of those things. The first half is important, but it’s not near as important as the second half. We’ve put ourselves in a good spot but we know our schedule is a lot tougher the second half too and it is. The places we have to go on the road I think are quite a bit tougher than we’ve been. Not that the places we’ve been haven’t tough but playing rivals and you’ve got Missouri and Kansas State and then of course Oklahoma and Texas Tech have played as well as anybody in our league for periods of time. Texas Tech may be playing better than anybody in our league right now so certainly we understand that.”